Norwegian names.

> Ødegard is an expression which came in use after great pest called

the

> black death 1349-50, killing between 1/2 and 2/3 of the population

in

> Norway and the rest of Scandinavia. The result of this was lack of
> people to run the farms situated all over the country. A lot of
> farmsteads simply lost their inhabitant, and the farm was left

"øde".

> Øde is a word in use even to day, and means "remote with no people
> there". The word gard/gård means farm. "Ødegard" or "Ødegård means
> "abandoned farm" or "not populated farm".
> Your name indicates that an anchestor of yours moved in to such a

farm

> and started to run it. If that happened a hundred years after it
> became an ødegard in the first place, it sure would look junky!
>
> By the way, Mark. Do you know aprox. where your anchestors lived
> before migrating to the US?
>
> Morten

My paternal grandfather always translated it as 'abandoned farm'.
We've been told the sense is closer to 'gone-to-ruin farm', with
overtones of fallen down barns and fields gone back to forest.
'Derelict farm' is not far off base.

He was from Tonsberg. He and his brother had different fathers. They
adopted the name in Chicago, apparently after a family place back in
Norway.